An in-depth look at how colonists created a vibrant print culture that shaped the foundations of modern Canada.

Printing presses were instrumental in creating and upholding a sense of community during the eighteenth century. While the importance of print in the development of colonial America and the nascent United States is well-established, Imprinting Britain extends the historical discussion northward to explore the dynamic and interrelated world of newspapers, coffee houses, and theatre in the British imperial capitals of Halifax and Quebec City.

Michael Eamon describes how an English-language colonial community coalesced around the printed word, establishing public spaces for colonists to propose, debate, and define their visions of an ideal society. Whereas American newspapers functioned as incubators of republican and revolutionary thought, their British North American counterparts featured a moderate discourse that rejected republicanism, favoured civic engagement, advocated liberty with propriety, extolled democracy under monarchy, promoted reason over superstition, and encouraged social criticism without revolution. The press also safeguarded against the uncertainties of colonial life by providing a steady stream of transatlantic news, literature, and fashion that helped construct a sense of Britishness in an environment rife with mixed loyalties.

Imprinting Britain is the story of communities that turned to the press for a canon of British norms, literary touchstones, and Enlightenment-inspired ideas, which offered a blueprint for colonial growth and a sense of stability in an ever-changing, transatlantic milieu.

“Historians of newspapers, printing, and theatre, as well as literary scholars and all those interested in eighteenth-century Canada, the British Atlantic, and British imperial history will find this work definitive in its specifics and suggestive in a variety of related contexts.” Ian K. Steele, Western University“A marvelous contribution to the cultural history of Canada, full of fascinating information and thoughtful reflection.” Elsbeth Heaman, McGill University“Imprinting Britain is a meticulous study of every extant English-language newspaper printed in eighteenth-century Quebec City and Halifax. But it is not only a study of texts or readers in isolation: this is a book about print as sociability, as well as print and sociability. As the detailed appendices demonstrate, those papers prove to be one of the few windows into colonial associative life, and readers are indebted to Eamon for cataloguing mentions of societies, coffeehouses, and plays performed in Halifax and Quebec City.” Journal of the Royal Nova Scotia Historical Society“Imprinting Britain provides a unique view of the role of newspapers in two eighteenth-century North American towns, Halifax and Quebec City. In this micro-study of colonies with the same ruler but without the same ethnic roots, Michael Eamon scrupulously documents printer/reader interaction. Because serious engagement with the papers required time to read, think, and write letters to editors, the 'colonial print community' was clearly an elite cadre whose definition of 'sociability' was imposition of British behavioral norms. [The author also shows] how local printer/editors, often with no background in journalism, abetted or, less often, resisted this 'imprinting' and how their efforts related it to the sociability of clubs, theaters, and coffeehouses. An innovative study." H-Net"His study of the impact of newspapers presents an interesting, well-researched, and capably argued discussion of the important role played by the press in creating a common culture in North America, a part of the British Empire that was quite diverse and under stress as it split apart in the late seventeen hundreds." The New England Quarterly“Imprinting Britain offers historians of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century British America an important new vantage point on colonial urban culture and its relationship to the published word. Imprinting Britain makes a significant contribution to our understanding of British North American culture and politics.” Canadian Historical Review

Michael Eamon is adjunct professor of history at Trent University and principal of Catharine Parr Traill College.

Figures xiPreface xiii

Introduction: The English-Language Press and the Formation of a Colonial Print Community in British North America 3

PART ONE PRINT AS SOCIABILITY1 Driving the Stage Coach: The Printers of Halifax and Quebec City 232 “Send me a Ton of Newspapers”: Readers and Reading Habits of the Colonial Print Community 463 “Directing Public Taste”: British Tradition, Social Control, and the Newspaper 674 Enlightened Print: Popular Science and Useful Knowledge in the Service of the Public 89

PART TWO PRINT AND SOCIABILITY5 Making Private Public: Print and the Promotion of Associative Life 1136 With the “approbation of a numerous and respectable audience”: Newspapers and the Public Acceptance of Theatre 1397 The Coffeehouse Elite: Print and the Fashioning of “Genteel” British Tradition 164

Conclusion: The Colonial Print Community’s Imprint on British North America 187

AppendicesI A Selection of Societies and Clubs in Halifax and Quebec City, 1760-1800 195II A Selection of Plays Performed at Halifax and Quebec City as Recorded in Newspapers and in Printers’ Records 201III A Selection of Public Houses Identified as Coffeehouses in the Newspapers of Quebec City and Halifax, 1764-1800 206